Never launch or assist DDoS attacks, sell or rent "stress testing" booter platforms, or flood opposing servers over gaming disputes

Using DDoS traffic to knock offline someone's website, server, or game constitutes the crime of sabotaging computer information systems. Punishments range up to 5 years for serious consequences and 5+ years for especially serious consequences. Customers paying platforms to launch attacks are prosecuted as joint criminal co-conspirators. In court precedents, DDoS platform operators running paid memberships received 10 months to 5.5 years in prison.

Zero financial expense. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack overwhelms target servers by directing massive coordinated bot traffic. The cost is walking away from illicit per-attack or traffic subscription businesses, and maintaining emotional restraint during heated in-game disputes or business rivalries. Resolve conflicts via platform reporting, arbitration, or police complaints rather than purchasing booter attacks.

Under Article 286 of the Criminal Law, interfering with computer information system functions resulting in system failure carries fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention of up to 5 years for "serious consequences," and >=5 years for "especially serious consequences." Courts categorize DDoS flooding as statutory system interference. "Serious consequences" are met if: (1) primary software/hardware of >=10 systems fails; (2) illegal income >=5,000 RMB or direct economic losses >=10,000 RMB; or (3) systems serving >=10,000 users remain down cumulatively for >=1 hour. Fivefold thresholds qualify as "especially serious." Knowingly providing attack scripts, malware tools, server hosting, or technical support to attackers constitutes joint criminal complicity once illegal gains reach >=5,000 RMB or tools are supplied to >=10 persons. Providing tools specifically designed for system intrusion or unauthorized control carries up to 3 years' imprisonment if provided to >=20 person-sessions or illegal gains reach >=5,000 RMB (Article 285). Sub-criminal disruptions result in up to 5 days' administrative detention (or 5 to 15 days for aggravated circumstances) under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law. Official Case 1 (Guiding Case No. 69): In early 2017, Yao and others were hired to form the overseas "Dark Night Syndicate," amassing server infrastructure to launch trojan-controlled DDoS barrages against three gaming companies hosted on a major cloud provider, knocking servers offline and causing 40,000+ RMB in emergency repair costs. In June 2018, Shenzhen Nanshan Court sentenced 11 defendants to 1 to 2 years for sabotaging computer information systems. Official Case 2: Tang and Wang operated a commercial DDoS web booter in March 2017 offering paid tiers and attack queues, targeting 80+ IP addresses. Nantong Haimen Court sentenced operators to prison terms between 10 months and 5.5 years. A commercial customer, Zhang, who placed over 100 DDoS attack orders against 11 rival company IPs to suppress competition, was convicted as a principal co-conspirator. Official Case 3: Wang operated a DDoS portal selling attack packages labeled Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond tiers. Beijing Haidian District Court sentenced him to 1 year's imprisonment with a 50,000 RMB fine for the crime of illegally utilizing an information network.

Beneficiary is yourself. These illicit services market themselves as "stress testing tools." Legitimate stress testing applies strictly to your own systems or third-party architectures where you possess explicit, signed written authorization. Penetrating or testing unapproved systems violates criminal standards (see Chapter 11, Rule 9). Judicial prosecution charges vary between jurisdictions: Haimen prosecuted booter operators for sabotaging computer information systems (sentences up to 5.5 years), whereas Haidian applied illegal utilization of an information network (1-year sentence); Supreme People's Court case guidance standardizes this conduct under Article 286. In Guiding Case No. 69, targeted platforms filed police reports, and public security collaborated with CNCERT/CC Guangdong Branch to trace 14 master command servers, corroborating server leases via chat logs and banking trails. Selling trojans to hijack third-party computers into botnets is addressed in Chapter 11, Rule 8.

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